What to expect when the Fair Work Ombudsman’s inspectors knock on your door

The announcement that inspectors from the Fair Work Ombudsman are planning to conduct 50,000 workplace visits – including 26,000 this year – has probably sent shockwaves through many small business owners.

After all, it’s rarely good news when a regulator knocks on the door. And with Opposition politicians and some business groups calling for a moratorium on the FWO making prosecutions for up to six months, it’s understandable that there is a bit of fear out there.

With this in mind, we decided to ask the Fair Work Ombudsman what exactly is involved in a workplace inspection?

Bill Loizides is group manager of field operations at FWO and is in charge of the team of inspectors who are set to visit 10,000 small businesses in New South Wales, 10,000 in Queensland, 5,000 in South Australia and 1,000 in Tasmania this year.

He says the inspections are known internally as TEVs, which stands for Targetted Educational Visits and says that, as the name suggests, informing employers about their rights and obligations under the new IR rules will be the focus.

“The TEVs are primarily targetting small business, they are meant to be non-confrontational and they are educative.”

The major focus of the visits will be the new National Employment Standards, which set down the minimum standards and conditions that all employees are entitled to. (For a detailed description and analysis of the NES, click here.)

“It’s predominately the NES – what they are, what they encompass and the obligations that they provide to employers,” Loizides says.

For example, the inspectors will inform employers about the importance of issues such as record keeping, although Loizides hastens to add the inspectors won’t actually be checking records.

So what happens when an inspector finds a breach of the new IR laws, either inadvertent or deliberate?

Expect a friendly chat rather than legal action, at least at first.

“In 99.9% of the cases where we uncover potential breaches of the legislation, we seek voluntary compliance. We had 25,000 claims last year and the absolute last resort is that they end up in court.”

Loizides says the inspections, which will be done be FWO inspectors and state-based workplace inspectors, may be organised via appointments (particularly in rural and regional areas where business people might be out of their office frequently) or completely unannounced, particularly where an inspector can see a number of business owners in the one place (such as a shopping centre).

“An inspector might walk around and deliver information packages to a whole cluster of shops, for example.”

Loizides encourages all employers contacted by the inspectors to ask as many questions as possible and suggests some employers might even like to call and request a visit.

But we’re not sure many employers will take up that offer just yet.